Many national governments are now that requiring vehicles adhere to stringent emissions standards. As such, many vehicles are now designed to comply with these emissions standards and are additionally equipped with hardware and software systems for detecting when the vehicle is not in compliance with the emissions standards. While these systems generally function as designed, problems can arise with the functionality of these systems, particularly in cold temperatures.
As an example, a vehicle may be equipped with a catalytic converter that reduces emissions. The catalytic converter may additionally be coupled to an air injection system for heating the catalytic converter and thus increasing the speed and efficiency of the catalytic converter. However, in cold weather, condensation may develop and freeze on the air injection system, thereby blocking airways to the catalytic converter. Thus, the catalytic converter may not function properly because the air injection system cannot supply the air. Consequently, a vehicle computing device may incorrectly detect a malfunction in the emissions of the vehicle.
While many current solutions attempt to combat this problem by estimating a temperature calibration of the air injection system, these current solutions utilize a static smoothing number in this calculation. By using a static smoothing number, the temperature estimation is often inaccurate, causing potential problems that may not be detected.